"An atmospheric contemporary ghost story with emotional depth, themes of finding your tribe, and an engagingly readable style"
May 2023 Book of the Month | Reading Age 8+ Interested Age 9+
One for reluctant readers who might just discover the pleasures of fiction through being swept into a succinct and thrilling modern ghost story with real-world resonance. With a compulsively rhythmic style, and much empathy, Hilary McKay’s Jodie is unpredictable, and moving with it.
From the opening pages, we become immersed in Jodie’s perspective: “Some people are talkers, but I’m a listener. I never tell anyone anything”. She’s also a loner, recently moved to a new school as a result of a host of family problems.
The action kicks off in the context of a field trip to a salt marsh: “Imagine mud – cold sea mud. Watery mud, reflecting the sky. Ancient mud”. With her favourite teacher unable to make the trip, Jodie wishes she’d stayed at home, not least when she feels excluded by the other girls in her dorm.
Feeling more left out than usual, Jodie walks to the marsh in pursuit of a dog. Then, when she’s trapped by the tide, remarkable things happen, ultimately revealing that loneliness isn’t permanent. It’s possible to find friendship with people who, like you, are “interesting and different”.
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Trapped and alone on the salt marshes, Jodie is troubled by a haunting presence in this eerily atmospheric ghost story from multi-award-winning author Hilary McKay.
Jodie never wanted to come on the residential trip to the field centre. A loner at school, she's forced into a dormitory with other girls from her class who don't understand her and talk about her behind her back. Even though they're not trying to be mean, Jodie feels excluded and miserable, and eventually escapes out onto the salt marshes in search of a little dog she can hear barking in the distance. But the salt marshes are dangerous and Jodie gets trapped by the incoming tide. Stuck in the sucking mud, will anyone even notice that she's gone? And where is the little dog that keeps barking so mournfully ...?
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed Jodie and determined it is suitable for children aged 9-12 years old
Jodie features in the following genres: Books of the Month, Recommendations, Dyslexia Friendly Books for Interest age 11+, Dyslexia Friendly Books for Interest age 9+, Featured Books for 11+ readers, Horror & Ghost Stories, Children's and Young Adult Fiction, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, PSHE: Bullying and Discrimination, Personal Social Health Economic (PSHE), School Stories, Thrillers, Adventure Stories, Featured Books for 9+ readers
Jodie is available in Paperback
Jodie was written by Hilary McKay and published by Barrington Stoke Ltd
Jodie has 97 pages
£7.19
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